As I look back at the items gathered in this installment, I can see what I was shooting for: eating with our fingers, probably outside, maybe on a picnic, but definitely comfortable all at once. If I was to serve a meal from these ingredients it would feel a lot like a cheeseboard with a great cheese, some tasty salami and a bunch of crispy, pickley, sweet, savory snacks to go along with the whole affair.
Oh, and you can make some cool dishes with the ingredients, too. Enjoy!
In This Installment
Alpha Tolman Cheese from Jasper Hill Farm in Vermont
Two brothers, Mateo and Andy Kehler and their wives took over Jasper Hill Farm in Greensboro, Vermont in the summer of 1998. They struggled for a while…trying to find a way of making money while producing a good product and maintaining their land. After a lot of visioning, designing and fundraising they set about to build a vast, seven room underground aging cellar.
It’s all about farm viability. Mateo and Andy work with small local dairy farms who are looking to add value to their milk. They show them how to make cheese, help them design cheese recipes, buy all the their ‘green’ cheese and mature it in the new facility. Once the cheese is tasting good, the brothers market and sell the cheese for the smaller farms. It’s a model that hasn’t been seen before in the U.S. You could liken it to a Neal’s Yard Dairy (in London) type model, except that the cheeses matured at Jasper Hill Farm will maintain more of their own farm’s ‘brand identity’ and not be a product of Jasper Hill Farm. Mateo sent Andy on sabbatical to Neal’s Yard Dairy in London. As the younger brother, Andy has taken this whole cheese venture more or less on Mateo’s word. So after working with cheese folks in England like Joe Schneider at Stichelton, Jamie Montgomery at Montgomery’s Farmhouse Cheddar and others Andy started to get the picture. They now have the capability to insure high quality for not only their cheese, but for the cheeses of the small dairies all around them. Everyone wins.
They’ve continued to evolve as cheesemakers, affineurs (agers of cheese) and as a business. They’ve built up their own herds over the years, too, and Alpha Tolman is made from their herd that grazes in Andersonville, Vermont—very near by Greensboro where Jasper Hill is headquartered. It’s a mountain-style cheese that might remind you of Gruyere or Comte (two of my favorites) and it’s aged for about a year (give or take a month or two). But what really impresses me about this cheese—aside from its flavor—is how well it captures the flavors of their little corner of Vermont. You see, they make their own rennet for this cheese and that’s unusual. Most of the rennet used in the world comes from a handful of chemical laboratories (and mostly from one company in particular). These rennets are derived chemically and do the work of traditional rennet. They’re also extremely consistent: you know what flavors you’ll get for your cheese batch after batch and that’s a good thing.
But a cool thing that can be very flavorful, too, is to make your own rennet. Having your own herd helps, too. In short, they use cultures from the previous days production with calf vells to make their rennet. Rennet are the enzymes that break down the milk and start the separation between solids (curds) and liquids (whey). It’s the most important step in making cheese, really, and a lot is riding on that rennet. Perhaps that’s why most makers don’t make their own rennet and rely on the consistency of industrial rennet. But for my mind, it sets Alpha Tolman apart from other cheese. Enjoy it cubed and in salads or simply sliced and enjoyed on a cheeseboard with some pears or apples for a nice light lunch.
Pork Summer Sausage from Colorado
Il porcellino salumi is coming up on their ten year anniversary—which I consider a pretty big accomplishment in any industry, let alone the food world. The most interesting part (to me) is how they’ve changed and grown and adapted during that time, because what they look like now is a bit different from their original vision, but it still works.
Bill Miner launched il porcellino salumi (officially) in 2015 in Denver, Colorado. He was a chef by training and passion, but salumi was the end goal all along. He opened a whole animal butcher shop/delicatessan/salumi maker and it was pretty quickly a hit. People loved the food at the tiny but impressive deli (it was always on the “best of Denver” lists) and the salumi was garnering more and more attention. Heck, even I heard about it and started carrying their sauccison sec salami back in 2018 so things were popping!
They were going so well in fact, that the vision started to change. Salumi is a great way to utilize trimmings and other parts of an animal you can’t butcher and sell, but when demand for the salumi outpaces the inventory of your butcher shop it might be time to make a few changes. Long story short, they found a USDA certified production plant in Basalt, Colorado—nearly three hours away from Denver—closed up the deli and butcher shop, and went all in on wholesale salumi production. They kept expanding in the facility they were working in (drying meat takes a lot of space) until they eventually took over the entire building and all inside.
Now they can focus on making the best tasting salumi from the best sourced ingredients they can, and this pork summer sausage is one of my favorites. If you’re not familiar, summer sausage is a very Midwestern type product made from fermented and smoked pork and then a bunch of spices like coriander, mustard seeds, allspice, and especially garlic. The result is a slightly tangy, soft, chewy, savory, slightly sweet salami that pairs great with the Alpha Tolman cheese you received. We Midwestern types like it with beer (of course) and anything else that feels German like pretzels and dark breads. But personally it’s one of my favorite comfort foods that’s easy to slice off and enjoy. I always have some in the fridge, unless my kids notice it in which case they eat it and I have to buy more. But this is the one I’ve been buying lately so I thought you’d enjoy it, too.
Adventure Pack Coffee from Portland, Oregon
I know that coffee can be a polarizing product and not everyone drinks it on a daily basis (which sounds stock raving crazy to me, but I guess it takes all kinds)—so I don’t usually include them in this club. I might fall for a specific roaster that I meet and want to highlight, but that’s rare. Still, what I liked about this next product is it’s versatile and mobile. With warm weather on the horizon and knowing some of us like to spend time camping and hiking, this adventure pack of coffee clicked in my mind. It’s easy to pack in and pack out, as they say, and the brew itself is easy to make with only hot water (and we can all boil water, even while camping).
And if you don’t drink coffee and you don’t camp or hike, I still think you’ll enjoy this product for those moments when someone comes to your house and would enjoy a cup of coffee. Instead of breaking out the Folgers crystals you’ve been storing for years, serve them one of these. They’ll appreciate it more than you can imagine. So there you go. Even if you don’t like to drink coffee, this product has a future in your pantry!
Eugene Jung loves coffee, which makes sense since he lives in Portland, Oregon and it’s sort of a hotbed for roasting and cafes and latte art and all that is good and glorious (and overcrowded) about coffee. But he didn’t start out wanting to roast coffee or even own a cafe, he just likes the stuff. No, Eugene (along with his brother, Mike) had a different job: proprietors of “Pips & Bounce”, a bar/restaurant with casual atmosphere, comforting food and ten ping pong tables to enjoy. You can book parties in a themed “rec room” or take the glassed in corners of the bar so you can be “seen” smashing that little white ball while sipping a Mai Tai. Things were (and still are) going well for Eugene & Mike at Pips & Bounce until a little thing called COVID upended their lives. They closed up shop (everyone did) and Eugene got a job at an Amazon fulfillment center to get out of the house and burn off his pent up energy and anxiety. For hours and hours every day he’d pick the items for orders that were being shipped all over and he couldn’t help but notice he was shipping some items more than others, like coffee and pet food. Eugene was forming an idea.
With the future of Pips uncertain (and a lack of passion for pet food), he turned his dormant 7500 sq ft restaurant into a small coffee roasting shop and started to figure it out.
“It—or I should say ‘I’—was terrible at first,” Eugene said, “so I started to network and connect with other roasters in Portland and after a year, we had some very good coffee. Better than the large guys, almost as great as the really small craft guys.”
A year and a half later after that, Pips was ready to come back online, but Eugene had a new problem to solve: he had two businesses in one location. After some soul searching and more roasting, he decided to cede day to day control of Pips and focus on coffee.
“The next thing to figure out, though, was how to make is standout?” Eugene explained. “Especially here in Portland, where it seems like everyone and their brother roasts coffee. I needed something more than just a good coffee.”
So Eugene researched how other folks were enjoying coffee in other parts of the world. “Asian countries are becoming more intersted in coffee and cafes especially.” Eugene pointed out. “In places like Japan, pourover style coffee is very popular and they even use biodegradable filters and paper vessels for coffee on the go. Basically, it fit the lifestyle of Portland-ites, too!”
When Eugene isn’t roasting coffee, he’s riding his motorcycle or camping or doing both. “You’ve got to pack efficientyly when you’re motorcycle camping, so these paper pourover stands are perfect for a day or two in the wilderness!”
Initially, Eugene was filling each pack with coffee by hand, but he’s now working with a co-packer for speed, consistency, and volume. I’m not sure if Pips & Bounce will pull Eugene back to the green table or not, but even if it does I don’t see these packs disappearing anytime soon. They make for delicious, delicate, full-flavored coffee, you can enjoy anywhere at anytime. You know…like when adventure calls.
Sundried Tomato Spread from Italy
In the shadows of the ancient (and I mean ancient) city of Matera lays Masseria Mirogallo, the Belfiore family farm and production site. It’s in the Basilicata region of Italy, which isn’t exactly a popular place for tourists (it still doesn’t have a train station there), yet humans have continuously lived here for more than 100,000 years. Seriously. Matera is considered the third oldest “city” in history behind Aleppo and Jericho. It was named European Capital of Cultural in 2019, so I’m sure it’s about to enjoy some popularity now that the pandemic is over, but we’ll see. They filmed “The Last Temptation of Christ” and Mel Gibson’s “Passion” movie there because it still looks like it’s 2000 years ago when you go there and it’s amazing. Right outside this ancient city sits the farm where these tomatoes were grown.
The tomatoes are picked when they’re at their ripest and the sugars inside are at their highest levels, then they clean them and set the tomatoes out to be sundried. The process of sun-drying is an old way of preserving your harvest long after its expiration date. The blazing Sun expels water from the tomato, further concentrating its sugars into a more intense flavor—as long as you’re as skilled at sundrying as the Belfiore family at Maseria Mirogallo, that is. You see, if you over sundry the tomatoes they’ll get tough and chewy and the flavor will turn taste more bitter than sweet.
But if you capture the moment just right, you’ll get a soft, supple, intensely flavorful eating experience like we have here. They puree the sundried tomatoes and mix them with their own olive oil and a touch of vinegar, then they jar it up. You can use this spread on toast/foccacia if you like, but I prefer to use it to boost the flavor quotient of other dishes and sauces. I’m also a sucker for a quick lunch of pasta noodles tossed with olive oil and 1-2 spoonfuls of this spread. It’s soft, sweet, savory, tomato-y, and just lovely at every turn. You might just eat it straight out of the jar and if you did, I wouldn’t judge you.
Doosra Snack Mix from New York, NY
If you’re a fan of the “Chicago-Mix” of popcorn—with the sweet caramel corn paired with the cheesy popcorn—you’re gonna like doosra snack mix. Inside this bag is a compelling array of ingredients that add up to a snacking experience that’s impossible to duplicate. Sometimes even lesser meal times like “snacks” deserve a special treatment and care.
Kartik Das has had an interesting life thus far and it seems to be getting tastier. He grew up in Singapore, but when the holidays would come up he would travel back to India to visit with family and vacation. The loved the food and snacks, especially those served during chai time (tea time). That’s when Kartik would gather some of the sweet snacks, some of the savory snacks, and even the spicy ones so he could eat them all at once: the sweet and spicy and savory mixing together in his mouth in one exciting new combination. His friends and family thought he was a bit odd.
Fast forward to Kartik moving to the US, working in corporate America for a number of years and then finally leaving to pursue his food dreams. I hear similar stories a lot: people leaving high paying, high stress jobs to work in the low paying, high stress food world. I guess the allure is too much for most of us to resist! Kartik still loves snacks and he aims to make a sweet/savory snack that reminds him of the flavors of India, but not a redux of a traditional product. He sets about inventing something new, and it works. Doosra is a mix of crisp, chickpea flour puffs, roasted peanuts, caramelized white chocolate chips and a secret blend of spices all tossed up together. It tastes fancy and complex and savory and sweet, all at once. Not bad for a “snack.”
Kare-Kare Peanut Sauce from Washington, DC
There are lots of reasons why I fall for sauces like this. For one, they’re delicious—obviously—but I really love how easy they make my life. They’re sort of the AI for dinner night: how do I make something flavorful in a matter of minutes and feed these four hungry mouths? Answer: Kare-Kare.
Fila Manila is still a young company (we also sell their version of Adobo sauce, check it out) with a clear vision: bring the flavors out of the home of a first generation Filipino American and share them with curious culinarians around the country. Kare-Kare (pronounced “kah reh-kah reh”) is their version of a thick, rich peanut sauce. It’s sweet, creamy, nutty, a little tangy and all around delicious. I usually use this with chicken and serve over rice, but it’s great with roasted or cooked veggies (not the pickled ones in this installment, necessarily, but give it a whirl if you want to). Simply cook your protein till it’s tender then add this sauce and simmer it on low for ten minutes or so. It also makes a great marinade and since all the ingredients are real and pronounceable and vegan and gluten-free, you can use it to make a dressing for a spring salad, too. Give it a shot and see what you can come up with.
Here’s their recipe for Fast & Tasty Kare-Kare Filipino Peanuty Wings:
Ingredients:
1/2 cup Kare-Kare sauce
2 tbsp. Sriracha
2 tbsp. Honey
1 tbsp. soy sauce
2 Cloves minced garlic
2 tbsp. butter
12 Pieces cooked chicken wings, warmed (baked, air-fried, fried, store bought, etc.)
toasted white sesame seeds for garnish
sliced scallions for garnish
Directions:
- Whisk together kare-kare sacue, sriracha, honey, soy sauce, and garlic in a small saucepan until combined. Bring to a simmer. Cook about 1 minute.
- Turn off heat and add butter. Stir until melted and fully incorporated.
- Transfer to a large bowl.
- Add wings to sauce and toss to combine.
- plate wings and garnish with sesame seeds and scallions. Serve immediately.
Zestos Corn Chips from Grand Rapids, MI
These snack chips are a time machine of flavor AND they’re made by some of our favorite folks in the food world: Koeze in Grand Rapids, Michigan…about two hours west on I-96 from Ann Arbor. Koeze has been around for more than a hundred years roasting nuts, making peanut butter (we sell a ton of their peanut butter) and dreaming of making corn tortilla chips until recently.
You see, as long as I’ve been working for Zingerman’s (thirty years this fall, if you can believe it) the only “Koeze” I’ve known has been Jeff Koeze, the fourth generation to lead the company. But apparently his father, Scott Koeze, loved sweet/savory/spicy snacks (I guess that’s the theme of this installment!) and in the 1970s he fell hard for the tortilla chips hitting the restaurants and bars all over west Michigan, where Grand Rapids is located. I’m old enough to remember this era in Midwestern cuisine and since my dad lived in Grand Rapids as well, I’m positive I enjoyed the same type of chips Mr. Koeze was crazy for. Heck, I still remember when the Chi-Chi’s restaurant chain swept through suburbia and made us all go gaga for chips and salsa as an appetizer and it was basically the same hoopla at roughly the same time. To put it politely: our dining options were pretty limited back in the late 70s/early 80s. But I digress.
Scott passed away in 2011 before figuring out the formulation for his chips, but the dream lived on in his son, Jeff. And now it lives on in us, too. It’s not every ‘new’ snack chip that carries such a history, so it stands out. And they’re delicious—we bought a case for the office and demolished in in three days. Last but not least, the bag makes me smile. Hopefully it’ll do the same for you.
Pickled Piparra Peppers from Spain
While every country has their unique food culture and traditions, I think my personal favorite style of eating has to be Spanish, in particular the way they eat in the Basque region of northern Spain along the French border.
While current food trends are heading north towards the nuevo Nordic cuisine, Spain was the spot for creativity, flavor, and fun for the better part of the last decade. Towns like San Sebastian on the Bay of Biscay became the epicenter of the gastro-universe and we all flocked there to enjoy the incredible food being made there and across the country. I mean, we all love Ibérico de Bellota cured ham now thanks to Spain. They make amazing flavors.
Along with the taste, is the culture around eating. Most of the country doesn’t seem to start dinner till 9 or 10 pm and that’s during the week. It’s customary to go to many spots along an avenue or often down a pedestrian only alley. Plates of tapas and small bites are stacked along bars and behind cases. You walk up to the counter, pick a glass of wine and a couple bites of food and then you go snack, sip and converse with your friends.
After twenty minutes, you might move on to the spot right next door to see what they’re offering. The wine is always delicious and usually only a couple Euros a glass. The food is even more affordable and incredibly delicious. Ibérico de Bellota ham on a piece of baguette. Tinned tuna tossed with capers and olives. Croquettes of cheese and pickles. Dishes of paella. Steak. Seafood. Every ten feet is a new discovery and 99/100 times the food they have inside is incredible.
You’ll meander through the alley ways with the rest of the families (apparently most children don’t go to bed until midnight in Spain) and you’ll notice the same faces are flowing along with you. By the end of the evening you’re full, only slightly tipsy, and very content.
Okay, pulling back on the nostalgia a little bit, one of the simpler yet popular snacks that you’ll find in these wine/snack bars are made with piparras peppers. These skinny yellowish green peppers are grown in the town of Usurbil, just outside San Sebastian. They’re grown organically, but most importantly they’re pickled with an organic vinegar instead of the cheaper, more industrial version other producers use. I’ve been snacking on them a lot lately and I think the vinegar might be the unsung hero in this particular jar of piparra for the simple fact that it doesn’t overpower the whole affair. Bitter, harsh vinegars can cover up the subtle sweetness of these peppers in lesser versions. Not so with these peppers.
We used to carry these peppers years ago, but they fell out of fashion a bit. Then a month or so ago, I came them at a party and fell in love all over again. I’m bringing them back to our shelves and you get to enjoy them first! You can eat them straight up and they aren’t going to burn up your lips or mouth with heat. The pickling definitely takes a bit of the bite out of the peppers and gives them a pleasant texture you don’t usually find. Add ’em to ham sandwiches, chop them up and toss with salad, or spear a pepper with a cornichon and a wedge of Manchego cheese for a classic Spanish tapa.